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Chad

In April, four journalists published a photo essay in The Guardian about the consequences of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad basin. They visited refugee camps in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Their photographs tell the stories of fractured families and untold suffering. Read on

The five presidents from G5 Sahel countries met on 6 February in Niamey, Niger at the 4th ordinary session of the Heads of State Conference. Discussions focused on ensuring sustainable funding for the recently launched G5 Sahel Joint Force. G5 leaders already approved its operational set-up, the creation of a dedicated trust fund, the creation of a regional police academy in Chad and a G5 Sahel Defence College in Mauritania. Read on

On 16 February 2014, the heads of state of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger met in Nouakchott to create the G5 Sahel, a regional body designed to co-ordinate strategies and policies on defence, security, governance, infrastructure and resilience in the Sahel. The G5 Sahel officially launched its joint force at an extraordinary summit on 2 July 2017. There is still a significant budget shortfall to make the force fully operational. Mobilising the necessary troops that will make up the joint force battalions is yet another challenge. Read on

On 5 February, CILSS and the World Bank signed a new funding agreement worth USD 20 million for the Sahel Irrigation Initiative Regional Support Project (PARIIS). The project covers six Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal) and aims to improve stakeholders’ capacity to develop and manage irrigation and increase irrigated areas in the Sahel by 2024. Read on

Special Representative of the Secretary-General Mohammed Ibn Chambas, who is also the head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, delivered his briefing on the security situation in the Sahel and West Africa on 11 January to the UN Security Council. “The security situation remains a grave concern,” he said. Read on

Following a request from the government of Burkina Faso, the CILSS Agrhymet Regional Centre will launch in Februrary a new training for water engineers. Improving water resource management is a key priority for the Sahel and West Africa. The application deadline is 20 January 2018.
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On the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, France hosted a meeting in support of the G5 Sahel where he met with his counterparts from the G5 countries and other partner countries and organisations. The objective of the meeting was to speed up the structuring of the G5 Sahel at the military, political and financial levels, and make it operational. Read on

UNICEF has published a statistical report on child marriage in West and Central Africa. As a previous Maps & Facts issue has shown, the region remains one of the most impacted by early marriage, which is one of the practices that the sustainable development goals seek to eradicate. Seven West African countries rank among the top 20 countries in the world with the highest rate of child marriage. Read on

At COP23, the World Bank organised a discussion, which was also transmitted on Facebook live, about the problem of coastal erosion and flooding in West Africa. The World Bank has set up the West Africa Coastal Areas Programme (WACA) to address the problem. These issues severely affect coastal and island countries from Mauritania to Gabon. Read on

The ambush that killed four American soldiers in Niger on 4 October has stirred up a public debate in the US. The controversy over the nature of the US intervention in Niger has been fuelled by the US military’s lack of transparency about this operation. With the need to step up the fight against Boko Haram, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the region, the United States may increase its presence and abandon the low-profile strategy that it has preferred until recently. Read on